Molds or trays for forming ice are a common item in many freezers. They are typically filled by holding a tray beneath a stream of water or other liquid. If multiple trays of ice are desired, they must be filled one at a time. This is inconvenient and tedious.
Another problem is that it is difficult to fill the cavities in a tray uniformly without overfilling them. If a person overfills the cavities of a tray a sheet of ice forms, connecting the cubes. Even if the cavities in a tray are not overfilled it is still possible for interconnecting ice to form between cavities because water expands 9% in volume when it freezes. These connections make it difficult to remove the ice, especially if one wishes to remove the cubes individually. People may twist the ice tray to attempt to break the connections between the ice cubes, but the connections cannot always be broken by twisting the tray alone. To avoid these connections between ice cubes, people may either intentionally under-fill the cavities, or tilt the tray back and forth during or after filling, then pour off any excess liquid in an attempt to fill all of the cavities evenly without overfilling them. The cubes formed using these techniques are frequently irregular in both size and shape.
An apparatus for filling multiple trays simultaneously is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,691. The use of that apparatus would result in interconnected ice cubes, and involves a cumbersome outer vessel that is flooded and then drained to fill all of the trays at once. Canadian Patent Application No. 2,253,645 also shows an apparatus for filing multiple trays simultaneously. However, the design of that apparatus does not compensate for the expansion of water when it freezes into ice, so it may still be possible for interconnections to form between ice cubes. An ice cube tray including depressions in the top wall of the tray is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,457. However, that patent does not disclose a way of filling multiple trays simultaneously, and the tray does not include apertures through which excess water may exit the tray.